Steps to bracketing

Bracketing refers to taking multiple pictures of the same scene using different exposure settings for each shot. This is a technique used by photographers when they encounter scenes under tricky lighting, an incidence where dramatic highlights and shadows appear. To capture the dynamic range within the scene, you have to bracket, and then optimize the pictures in PhotoImpact's High Dynamic Range. To bracket:

Step one:

Mount your camera on a rock-steady tripod or place it atop a flat surface to minimize camera shake.

Step two:

Peek into the viewfinder and lightly press the shutter button to check the light meter reading.

Step three:

Set the camera to Aperture Priority or Manual mode and then select a small aperture (F-stop) like F8 or smaller. When you use Manual mode, adjust the shutter speed until the light meter indicator points to the middle of the light meter scale then take the first picture.

Step four:

Take two more pictures. To avoid changing the area in focus, maintain the same aperture and change only the shutter speed settings. From the original shutter speed setting, adjust it down one step slower then take a picture. Afterwards, switch the shutter speed back to its original setting, adjust the shutter speed one step faster, and then take another picture. For example, if you used a shutter speed setting of 60 in the first picture, take two more pictures with shutter speeds of 30 and 125.

If your camera has an Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) feature, switch it on. Take pictures with at least 1 Exposure Value (EV) difference to produce a wide exposure difference among your pictures. Your camera's AEB feature automatically takes three to five bracketed pictures in one shutter button press.

If your aim is to produce a high dynamic range image using PhotoImpact's High Dynamic Range, take three pictures to produce good results. Taking more pictures may result in too much blur especially if you cannot keep the camera steady enough. On the other hand, if you are creating and saving the camera curve profile, take at least five pictures.

To learn how to apply PhotoImpact's HDR feature, refer to the Producing Realistic Images with High Dynamic Range
and Fixing Exposure and Removing Artifacts with High Dynamic Range tutorials. To create a camera curve profile, refer to the Creating a Camera Curve Profile tutorial.